RRPS school board kicks off district's 30th anniversary celebration

RRPS at 30: Cleveland looks back on district's journey

What started out in a condemned building in 1994 has now become one of the top-rated school …

Bad news for Rio Rancho Public Schools students hoping their summer break would never end: While Aug. 6 is the first day of school for all RRPS students, July 1 officially kicked off the 2024-25 school year.

Good news for Rio Rancho Public Schools: July 1 officially launched the 30th year for the district.

The RRPS Board of Education kicked off a year-long celebration of the district’s 30th anniversary at its July 8 meeting.

Superintendent Sue Cleveland, who has been with the district since Day One, shared highlights of the district's journey, from its formation in 1994 to its present-day achievements.

On July 1, 1994, the very first RRPS school bus arrived at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, carrying the district's inaugural students. Dignitaries like former first lady Alice King and Congressman Bill Richardson joined the emotional celebration of a dream realized.

“Happy birthday, Rio Rancho Public Schools,” Cleveland said. “It all started at Martin Luther King Elementary on July 1, 1994. And that day saw the very first Rio Rancho Public Schools bus pull into the parking lot. It was full of children who were going to be the first children enrolled in the school district. We had a lot of people from the community who came, and I have to tell you, when that first school bus rolled in with our RRPS on it, there was not a dry eye in the entire group of people that were there because they worked so hard to get the district created.”

RRPS initially served grades K-8. High school students remained enrolled in Albuquerque Public Schools until the completion of Rio Rancho High School in 1997. Cleveland High School opened in 2009 as the student population at RRHS swelled to over 3,000.

Cleveland acknowledged the district's growth, transitioning to its current status as one of the top school districts in the state.

Now, 30 years later, RRPS is embarking on another school year.

Despite the tight timeframe, RRPS departments have been busy with facility improvements, grant applications and academic program development this summer. Summer school programs and extracurricular activities like fine arts camps and athletics continued throughout June and July.

Cleveland expressed her gratitude to everyone who dedicated their time this summer to ensure a smooth start to the upcoming school year.

“It's been a really productive summer. Our IT department, our facilities department, grants folks have been working hard all summer with a very short timeline to get things done. We've also had academic programs, we've had summer schools and we've had extracurricular, co-curricular things like camps for fine arts and athletics and other kinds of activities. So there really wasn't a stop in the summer," Cleveland said. "A lot of really good things were happening during the month of June and will continue throughout July but we're just about ready to start up the next school year. I do want to thank everyone who's worked so hard this summer, on all of the projects. These people gave up their time and their very limited summer to do some really good things.”